By Jim Barnett
November 25th, 2025
BURLINGTON, ON
Editor’s note: Jim Barnett is a long-time resident, lives in the eastern side of the city and has been delegating to Council for years. Lots of references to the Budget book in his delegation to City Council. Pay attention to the increases he points out.
Jim Barnett: Burlington’s portion of the budget is still more than double the rate of inflation.
Reading through the proposed budget was both enlightening and at the same time disturbing. It was obvious that a lot of thought had gone into the budget preparation but Burlington’s portion still resulted in an increase more than double the rate of inflation. It still references a 2.98 % increase when the final police budget has not been factored in and includes education, an area where the city has no influence and is being used to mask the magnitude of the city spending. This needs more explanation since our population is not increasing, its less than one percent, and most economists are suggesting the economy is slowing and spending restraint is required. There seems to be large increases in salary and benefits in most areas, 6 or 7 percent or more when the private sector is less than 3 %. Why is this? Where is the detailed justification? Since city employees put the budget together, they are also the beneficiaries of these salary and benefit increases.
Do they have a conflict of interest?
Some examples are:
Page 81, Development and growth Management up 10.9%
Page 101, Community service Admin. Wages and Benefits up 8.6%
Page 106, Wages and Benefits in Transit up 7.5%
Page 125, Customer experience up 8.6 %
Page 132, Public works Wages and benefits up 10.5%
Page 161 Legal Salaries and wages up 20.4%
Page 183 Finance Salaries up 9.9%
While it appears that the employee count is stable, should it not be coming down since the city is not growing? In addition, there is consultant growth in a number of areas, masking employee growth.
Some examples are:
Page 106 Transit consultants up 28.6%
Page 113 Recreation consultants up 9.5 %
Page 144Transportation consultants up 13.5%
Page 158 Corporate and legal consultants up 16.1 %
Page 161 Legal consultants up 141.9%
Page 187 Finance consultants up 17.4%
The above is just a short list from the many examples of large salary, benefit, and consulting increases in the budget.
Throughout the document there are statements about money being spent to improve or better something. But for the most part there are no measurable statements about how much better so that you know if the action taken produced the desired results. This would be standard in a well-run organization.
My second main concern in the budget is the whole issue of Transit. We have the situation where we have million-dollar buses hauling on average of a little over one passenger at a time. To me this does not make any sense. The budget shows operating and capital expenses for this year of 32 million dollars with an income from all sources of 6.6 million, a loss of 25.4 million.
In addition to this there is close to half a million dollars in other areas of the budget to try and improve transit, such as special signal lights. Since less than 10 percent of the population uses transit, please see the following for discussion purposes.
There is a Burlington Transit statistic that shows an average boarding of 27 passengers per hour. If there are more than 27 busses is service on average, it supports the statement that the loading is in the one passenger per bus on average.
Average ridership over 50 weeks is estimated at 150 trips per year. 3,000,000 total rides
Number of passengers 3,000,000/150 equals 20,000
Subsidy per passenger $30,000,000/ 20,000 equal 1500’s dollars per rider.
The math may not be perfect. If not show me yours.
Burlington Transit has engaged a consultant. The report is not going to be available until next March or April, well past this year’s budget preparation. I attended one of the information meetings. It was clear, in my opinion, the consultants were looking for support for more buses, more routes, more options and more frequency. They did not spend any time looking for ways to reduce costs and improve efficiency in the use of the assets.
On top of this they are looking for ways to electrify the fleet which takes the cost of a 40-passenger bus from one million to one and a half million per bus!
There are numerous complaints about the busses not arriving on time. As a solution to the tardiness, Burlington Transit is suggesting more shelters with more amenities. Will they propose air conditioning in the summer and heating in the winter, maybe a TV, possibly a washroom for the convenience of passengers waiting for the bus to arrive?
On page 563, the plan is to buy all new busses at 40 ft, and spending 57.4 million dollars over 10 years for these busses. Why?
This area needs a lot of work. The category is the fourth most expensive in the city yet it only serves a small percentage of the population. See page 27.
My penultimate point. The mayor correctly asks for proper decorum and polite interchange. I totally agree. Politicians and staff should not feel intimidated or threatened as they carry out their responsibilities. It would be helpful if the politicians would respond to our questions with a dialogue rather than practicing to be in the house of commons for Question period or ignoring our inquiries altogether.
Some general comments.
Page 16 Several existing positions were relocated saving 1.2 million. If the people are still there, there was no cost avoidance.
Page 17: Eliminated two administrative roles in Engineering by moving contact to Service Burlington. Were there underutilized people in Service Burlington, or more hires there?
Page 39 Average tax increases for the next 5 years are forecasted at 5.23%. This is far more than inflation is forecasted. I suggest a lot of work needs to be done to keep Burlington affordable.
Page 40 Since there is not going to be much growth in the city, why are Development and Growth management costs increasing by 10.9% Transit up 7.3 % plus other costs in Engineering. Community Services Administration 8.0%. Customer experience 9.9% It seems that council wants to spend a lot of money to try and convince us they are doing a good job.
Page 43 Human resources costs increasing 6.3 %, with Benefits moving up 9.25%
Page 44 Some of the vertical columns do not add. The most distressing number is an almost 10 percent (9.8) increase in staff in an almost no growth city.
Page 45 and 46 The Transit category is the fourth largest consumer of tax dollars.
Page 81 Development and Growth management, an increase of 10.9%
Many jurisdictions are backing away from general greening targets, particularly in green fleet targets. Burlington’s budget seems to be going the other way. Why is this?
There are a lot of people working more hours per week in Burlington for wage and benefit packages far below that enjoyed by the city workers without anything close to the same job security. There is a major housing issue, a growing food insecurity with more and more people having to resort to food banks. The proposed city taxes are going to increase the hardships on a lot of people in Burlington. I ask that you keep that in mind in your deliberations.
Finally, I would like to take a moment of silence to posthumously thank Ann Marsden for her years of work trying to bring accountability and transparency to city council.
Jim – you weren’t able to say to the end of the day-long meeting when they announced that the forecasted increase for 2026 is 5.8% The final number will be determined by what the Regions decides it is going to need.
Jim,
Thank you for the time and care you put into reviewing the proposed 2026 Burlington Budget. Your detailed breakdown of departmental increases, consultant use, and transit economics helps residents understand what is otherwise a very dense and technical document. In the absence of the full budget details, your analysis provides a valuable starting point for the community to examine the direction of spending and to ask reasonable questions of Council.
Out of curiosity, and in the interest of encouraging meaningful dialogue between elected officials and engaged residents, does the Gazette happen to know whether any members of Council asked you questions following your delegation? Understanding the level of engagement delegators receive is becoming an important part of assessing how well our civic process is working.
Thank you again for the effort you continue to put into supporting accountability, transparency, and respectful engagement.
It is absolutely shocking that we spend so much on so few bus riders.